The present disclosure relates generally to information handling systems (IHSs), and more particularly to the management of backplanes in an IHS storage subsystem.
As the value and use of information continues to increase, individuals and businesses seek additional ways to process and store information. One option is an IHS. An IHS generally processes, compiles, stores, and/or communicates information or data for business, personal, or other purposes. Because technology and information handling needs and requirements may vary between different applications, IHSs may also vary regarding what information is handled, how the information is handled, how much information is processed, stored, or communicated, and how quickly and efficiently the information may be processed, stored, or communicated. The variations in IHSs allow for IHSs to be general or configured for a specific user or specific use such as financial transaction processing, airline reservations, enterprise data storage, or global communications. In addition, IHSs may include a variety of hardware and software components that may be configured to process, store, and communicate information and may include one or more computer systems, data storage systems, and networking systems.
Some IHSs such as, for example, servers, include storage subsystems that have backplanes that may couple a plurality of storage devices to the IHS. Typically, a storage controller is coupled to the backplane to manage the storage devices. However, when more than one backplane is used in the storage subsystem such that there are multiple backplanes each coupling a plurality of storage devices to the IHS, a number of issues can arise. One conventional solution is to provide a separate storage controller for each backplane in the multiple backplane storage subsystem. Such solutions increase cost and present the IHS with the problem of communicating with multiple storage controllers. However, if the use of only a single storage controller is desired, the single storage controller may be coupled to a plurality of backplanes. This presents the single storage controller with multiple storage management domains, which results in problems with regard to which backplane the single storage controller should be communicating with, and raises a number of issues with regard to storage device enumeration schemes, contiguous storage device numbering, and/or a variety of other issues known in the art.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide an improved storage subsystem backplane management system